On Film - A photo Walk in Claremont, Cape Town

Trying to catch the ripples in the Arderne Gardens koi pond was a bit tricky... and at shutter speed 1/30 I was afraid of some motion blur, but to my relief the shot turn out okay :)

With some old slide film (AKA expired) in hand I decided to head out on a walk through the streets of Claremont, including a visit to nearby Arderne Gardens to catch what I could of the water lying around here-and-there after the recent rains. The air is also so fresh after the rain, it just makes any good walk even better.

I thought I would try and perhaps find something interesting to shoot like water droplets on foliage or pools of water in interesting places. Maybe look for a few reflections, or cool shots of street-side elements. I'm always on the lookout for intriguing nature versus man-made-concrete-jungle-ish photos... just maybe there would be some to find today.

Being expired film, there were a few images that didn't amount to anything really. This is what I got...

Well, I wasn't entirely let down. And I must admit the results from the slide film were super interesting. Now, the local lab where I get my film processed can't really work with slide film in a way which produces true colours. They have to cross-process the slide film. So the colours all come out a bit wacky. But I've worked out a quick and easy way to fix this (using the scanned images) in Adobe Lightroom.

If you'd like to read my post on working with slide film that's been cross processed (including before and after images) > Here's the link.

I really like how most of the images turned out :) Some better than others, but in general, it was a fruitful photo-walk. Old-school looking images of details and reflections. I had fun working on interesting compositions where I could, and I guess it's nice to go back to basics every now and then.

Now, without too much-added waffling on, here are the images! Let me know what you think in the comments :)

As you can see in the last image, I'm very excited about having my photo taken! *not!*

But as my wife so rightly said, "One day, you'll look back and remember this photo-walk better when you see your young self in at least one of the photographs - now hand me that camera and stand over there!".

Cross-processing is the basically deciding to deliberately process one type of film in a chemical solution that's actually intended for another type of film. Specific chemical solutions are optimised for certain types and kinds of film, and by mixing this up you'll get unpredictable (and often interesting) results.

Some images are better than others, but in general, it was a fruitful photo-walk. Old-school looking images of details and reflections. I had fun working on interesting compositions where I could, and I guess it's nice to go back to basics every now and then.

There were two things I needed to do recently. One was to go for walk and get some fresh air! The second was to test out an old (but new-to-me) lens which I have to admit I've had for a while... but haven't used yet - it's kind of embarrassing!